Pet of the Month: Lola the cat

This month’s Adoptable Pet from Jaiya’s Animal RescueName: LolaHealth: Vaccinated, spayed, dewormed and de-fleadIdeal Home: Family with lots of understanding and patienceStory (as told by her rescuers):

About two weeks before Christmas I spotted Lola in the grounds of the arts and crafts gallery at the end of my road. I always look thru the fence when I pass as this is a big breeding ground near my place where I have seen several litters of kittens and numerous adult cats.I hadn’t seen Lola before there. She was extremely pregnant and also very friendly. I rushed back home and got my carrier as there was no way she could stay in those freezing conditions and have her babies. I managed to squeeze her huge tummy thru the bars of the fence, being helped by a Chinese passer who obviously understood what I was trying to do (ta hen da!!! tai leng!!! very limited mandarin!).I then took her straight to the Vet hospital where 2 doctors looked her over and took an X-ray to find she had 6 babies inside. They thought she was in pretty good health and only about 1-2 years old. One of the babie’s heads was very near the birth canal, so she was expected to give birth very soon. I took Lola home to desperately find a foster parent or somewhere to board her (as I was scheduled to fly out of China within a few days back to London for the Christmas break). With all fosterers full of pets and Lola’s condition needing close monitoring she ended up back at the Vet hospital for boarding.

Then, it follows a very sad story. Whilst I was back in London other JAR volunteers kindly monitored her progress by calling almost every day and checking whether the kittens had been born. Over two weeks passed … Lola was absolutely huge by then and everyone involved was very concerned for her babies. Suddenly, she was rushed into surgery as the first two kittens had emerged, but were stillborn and also badly deformed.We waited nervously hoping that the other four would be alive and ok, but sadly all 4 were also stillborn and with the same horrible deformities. The initial reason suggested was toxin ingestion. This would be spread to Lola’s babies and cause the abnormal growth of their bodies and also their death.The one positive of all this was that Lola had pulled through, though was understandably weakened by the operation. She refused to eat when coming to after the operation and had to be put on a drip. A blood test proved positive to blood parasites – a condition called Haemoplasmosis which is spread by a tick or flea bite. This would prove to be the most likely cause of the kittens’ deformities after all. She was treated with antibiotics for the Haemoplasmosis and remained listless and depressed for a further two weeks after the operation, refusing to eat by herself and still confined in her boarding crate.Finally, with a bit of coaxing, her appetite was reawakened and she was ok to go home with Julie (a JAR fosterer) after a full month of being “crated”.Lola was very happy to be “home” and get some proper TLC, settling in remarkably quickly to her new surroundings, curling up on the sofa and purring loudly on her first evening there.Lola is a lovely cat (“a real sweetie” as Julie says). Remarkably placid and chilled – even the vets have commented on how relaxed she is for a street cat. The only “downside” is that Lola sometimes feels quite scared at night time, hereafter her future adoptive parents need to be patient and understanding during these episodes, allowing Lola to snuggle next to them in order to feel safe.Now Lola just needs a chance to go to a permanent loving home that will cherish her!!! Fingers crossed!!!

For more information about being a foster parent or how to adopt another cat or dog from JAR, please contact [email protected], or come to visit JAR during its “Adoption Day in Puxi” on March 6th, from 11:00 to 15:00 hrs, at Papas Bierstube Restaurant, Hongmei Road 3338, Hongmei Pedestrian Street 22-24, Puxi, Shanghai (德国乡村西餐厅上海市闵行区虹梅路3338弄虹梅休闲街).JAR is a non-profit small animal rescue group that is committed to protecting and improving the health and welfare of animals through pet health care, education, and the promotion of adoption/ foster care as an alternative approach to purchasing animals. We are dedicated to domestic animal population control, promoting pet adoption / fostering and reducing the incidence of abandonment.